Sample ballot for the November 6, 2012 School Board Elections in Bridgewater. (Bergeron Image.)

Tuesday’s school board elections should have taken place in April, as they always have.

Had that happened with no other moves by Bridgewater and Raritan’s Board of Education, those elections would have provided you with an up or down vote on the Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget, in addition to your having the ability to choose three board members.

However, this is no longer possible.Earlier this year, five school board members – including incumbent Daniel Petrozelli – successfully initiated a resolution to take away the public’s right to vote on the Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget.That was not necessary under New Jersey law.

Petrozelli was appointed to the BR-BOE in an open public meeting from a field of many other candidates.The board interviewed each candidate in an open public meeting and discussed each of their qualifications.

He was chosen over other candidates because, to summarize the mood and the spirit of the board on the evening that he was selected (that discussion is on tape and on the record), he was seen as a person constituting a tabula rasa – a Latin phrase denoting “a person with a clean slate,[2]” that is, one whose very innocence of board matters would tend to make him completely impartial.

As you know, the Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget comprises by far the bulk of the real estate tax in Bridgewater and Raritan.Yet, you now have no influence upon it.

Patrick Breslin, Board Vice-President, and Board Member Cindy Cullen – the other two incumbent board members up for re-election on Tuesday’s ballot – voted against the majority to retain the budget voting privilege for you.

As previously mentioned, Petrozelli is one of the five board members who voted to strip away the public’s right to vote on the school budget.

Furthermore, Breslin and Cullen also expressed concern that these changes might result in the politicizing of school board elections in Bridgewater and Raritan.

That has already happened.

To wit:

There is another major voting issue:The forms on file at the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) show that Mr. Petrozelli is being supported by trade unions not intrinsically involved with school board matters in Bridgewater or Raritan.

According to public records on file with ELEC, the following contributions from out-of-district trade unions were made to Petrozelli’s campaign:$1000 by “DC of NJ Ironworkers Pac Fund, Bloomfield, NJ 07003;” $500 by the “Warren County Building Trades Association, Parsippany NJ 07054;” $2000 by “Local 102 PAC Parsippany, NJ 07054;” and $500 by the “Steamfitters Local Union No. 475 PAC, Warren NJ 07059.”

In total, those numbers tally to $4000 from out-of-district, union-based lobbying groups whose charters are hardly educational in purpose.

$700 worth of that outside PAC money is coming to you in the form of 10,000 flyers being attached to your mailboxes.Given the source of funding, you would do well to ignore them, don’t you think?

The origin of support for Mr. Petrozelli’s campaign has absolutely no connection to education in this school district.It presents a very troubling precedent that challenges the integrity of the Bridgewater-Raritan School Board and reflects badly on Mr. Petrozelli’s judgment.

It certainly is not indicative of the tabula rasa (clean slate) mentality that the BR-BOE thought it was getting when it decided to appoint Petrozelli to the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education.

P.S. Just a thought:Filipe Pedroso is an excellent choice for Bridgewater Township Council

Article printed from The View From Bridgewater: http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/bridgewater